This invention pertains generally to the coating of materials with a vapor and more particularly to a method and apparatus for vaporizing a material and depositing vapor on an object in a super-heated, high pressure state.
Heretofore, coatings have been deposited on objects by techniques such as vaporization of material from an open source in reduced atmosphere and high vacuum. While these techniques are capable of producing coatings of good quality, they have certain limitations and disadvantages. In general, the kinetic energy of the vapor stream can be increased by making provision for placing an electric charge on the object to be coated, as practiced in ion plating. It is, however, difficult to provide the necessary charge on an object fabricated of a dielectric material. Ion plating also frequently adds undesirable heat energy to the object to be coated.